The Small-Scale Poultry Flock, Revised Edition

The Small-Scale Poultry Flock, Revised Edition PDF

Author: Harvey Ussery

Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing

Published: 2022-11-01

Total Pages: 433

ISBN-13: 1645021017

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The most comprehensive book on how to raise and breed your own poultry flock is now fully updated and expanded “The ultimate book for those who want to know everything there is to know about raising poultry.”—Gene Logsdon, author of Letter to a Young Farmer “There’s no better introductory reference on the joy of home-raising chickens.”—Booklist The first edition of The Small-Scale Poultry Flock helped thousands of small-scale farmers and homesteaders successfully adopt a practical and integrative model for working with chickens and other domestic fowl based on natural systems. In this expanded and thoroughly revised edition, readers will find plenty of all-new material. Author Harvey Ussery introduces readers to his new favorite breed of chicken, Icelandics; describes how he manages his breeding flock using a clan mating system; presents detailed information on the use of trapnests and record-keeping spreadsheets for evaluating breeding hen performance; and provides step-by-step instructions for construction of an ingeniously designed mobile poultry shelter. Readers will also find fully updated information and tips on all aspects of flock management, including: • Growing (and sourcing) feed on a small scale • Cultivating earthworms and grubs as high-protein poultry feed • Brooding (and breeding) at home • Implementing manure management • Using electric net fencing for ranging flocks • Using poultry as insect and weed managers in the garden and orchard • Enlisting your chickens as garden tillers and compost-makers • Protecting the flock from predators • Keeping the flock healthy • Working with mother hens Ussery presents a sustainable and ecologically friendly model that can be adapted for use at a variety of scales. His advice and examples throughout the book will prove invaluable for beginner homesteaders, growers looking to incorporate poultry into their farm, or experienced flocksters seeking to close their loop.

The Small-Scale Poultry Flock

The Small-Scale Poultry Flock PDF

Author: Harvey Ussery

Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing

Published: 2011-10-07

Total Pages: 419

ISBN-13: 160358367X

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The most comprehensive guide to date on raising all-natural poultry for the small-scale farmer, homesteader, and professional grower. The Small-Scale Poultry Flock offers a practical and integrative model for working with chickens and other domestic fowl, based entirely on natural systems. Readers will find information on growing (and sourcing) feed on a small scale, brooding (and breeding) at home, and using poultry as insect and weed managers in the garden and orchard. Ussery's model presents an entirely sustainable system that can be adapted and utilized in a variety of scales, and will prove invaluable for beginner homesteaders, growers looking to incorporate poultry into their farm, or poultry farmers seeking to close their loop. Ussery offers extensive information on: The definition of an integrated poultry flock (imitation of natural systems, integrating patterns, and closing the circle) Everything you need to know about your basic chicken (including distinctive points about anatomy and behavior that are critical to management) Extended information on poultry health and holistic health care, with a focus on prevention Planning your flock (flock size, choosing breeds, fowl useful for egg vs. meat production, sourcing stock) How to breed and brood the flock (including breeding for genetic conservation), including the most complete guide to working with broody hens available anywhere Making and mixing your own feed (with tips on equipment, storage, basic ingredients, technique, grinding and mixing) Providing more of the flock's feed from sources grown or self-foraged on the homestead or farm, including production of live protein feeds using earthworms and soldier grubs Using poultry to increase soil fertility, control crop damaging insects, and to make compost-including systems for pasturing and for tillage of cover crops and weeds Recipes for great egg and poultry dishes (including Ussery's famous chicken stock!) And one of the best step-by-step poultry butchering guides available, complete with extensive illustrative photos. No other book on raising poultry takes an entirely whole-systems approach, or discusses producing homegrown feed and breeding in such detail. This is a truly invaluable guide that will lead farmers and homesteaders into a new world of self-reliance and enjoyment.

The Small-Scale Poultry Flock, Revised Edition

The Small-Scale Poultry Flock, Revised Edition PDF

Author: Harvey Ussery

Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing

Published: 2022-11-01

Total Pages: 663

ISBN-13: 1645021025

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The most comprehensive book on how to raise and breed your own poultry flock is now fully updated and expanded “The ultimate book for those who want to know everything there is to know about raising poultry.”—Gene Logsdon, author of Letter to a Young Farmer “There’s no better introductory reference on the joy of home-raising chickens.”—Booklist The first edition of The Small-Scale Poultry Flock helped thousands of small-scale farmers and homesteaders successfully adopt a practical and integrative model for working with chickens and other domestic fowl based on natural systems. In this expanded and thoroughly revised edition, readers will find plenty of all-new material. Author Harvey Ussery introduces readers to his new favorite breed of chicken, Icelandics; describes how he manages his breeding flock using a clan mating system; presents detailed information on the use of trapnests and record-keeping spreadsheets for evaluating breeding hen performance; and provides step-by-step instructions for construction of an ingeniously designed mobile poultry shelter. Readers will also find fully updated information and tips on all aspects of flock management, including: Growing (and sourcing) feed on a small scale Cultivating earthworms and grubs as high-protein poultry feed Brooding (and breeding) at home Implementing manure management Using electric net fencing for ranging flocks Using poultry as insect and weed managers in the garden and orchard Enlisting your chickens as garden tillers and compost-makers Protecting the flock from predators Keeping the flock healthy Working with mother hens Ussery presents a sustainable and ecologically friendly model that can be adapted for use at a variety of scales. His advice and examples throughout the book will prove invaluable for beginner homesteaders, growers looking to incorporate poultry into their farm, or experienced flocksters seeking to close their loop.

Chickens, 2nd Edition

Chickens, 2nd Edition PDF

Author: Sue Weaver

Publisher: Fox Chapel Publishing

Published: 2011-08-23

Total Pages: 279

ISBN-13: 1935484915

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Hobby Farms Chickens: Tending a Small-Scale Flock for Pleasure and Profit is geared toward the hobby farmer looking to begin his or her own flock of chickens on a small farm or even backyard. Author Sue Weaver, who keeps various exotic breeds and countless barnies on her farm, is an expert on all things livestock and an avowed chicken fanatic. This photo-filled guide begins with "Chickens 101" and details the physiology of chickens, members of the Phasianidea family, providing beginning hobby farmers with a basic education in the chicken's unique physical makeup (from wings and feathers to beaks and digestive tracts), behavior, mating, and its unexpected high intelligence. The author offers advice on choosing the right types of chickens to get started: meat, egg, or dual purpose, or maybe even "just for pets." The book is an excellent resource for selecting which breed of chicken is best for the hobby farmer, based on the birds' traits, such as aggression, personality, noise factor, tolerance for heat, confinement, cold, etc. Chickens also provides information on selecting or building a suitable chicken coop for the hobby farmer's brood, outlining the basic requirements (lighting, ventilation, flooring, waterers, insulation, safety, and so forth). A detailed chapter on feeding chickens offers essential guidance on nutrition, commercial feeds, supplements, and water requirements. For the chicken hobby farmer looking to start with a clutch of baby chicks (from his own hen or an outside source), the author provides excellent info on incubators and hatching as well as all of the accommodations and preparation required for hens in the nest box. A chapter on selling eggs and broilers provides timetables, requirements, and dos and don'ts to get a hobby farmer's business off on the right foot. All chicken keepers will find the chapter on health of particular value, with expert advice on preventing common problems and dealing various maladies and diseases. Much detailed information about all of the topics in the book is encapsulated in sidebars. A glossary of over 125 terms plus a detailed resource section of chicken and poultry associations, books, and websites complete the volume. Fully indexed.

Chickens

Chickens PDF

Author: Sue Weaver

Publisher:

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 144

ISBN-13:

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Chickens puts the essential tips of chicken keeping at the fingertips of the hobby farmer. This must-have guide directs both new and experienced farmers through the nuances of tending a small-scale flock -- for pleasure and for profit.

Raising Resilient Bees

Raising Resilient Bees PDF

Author: Joy McEwen

Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing

Published: 2023-07-20

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 1645021947

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With over 100 color photographs and illustrations, Raising Resilient Bees is the comprehensive source for new and experienced beekeepers, offering a sustainable, natural, and repeatable model of care for hive health and production. Global pests and diseases present an unprecedented challenge for the modern honey bee. Hobby and commercial beekeepers alike continue to experience troubling rates of mortality for their colonies, with potentially deleterious consequences for the stability of our wider ecosystems and overall food security. It is time for a global focus on restoring the health of the shared apiary through naturally reared, genetically diverse, and resilient lines of bees. Raising Resilient Bees establishes these parameters and provides guidance for new and experienced beekeepers alike to translate these goals into real practice, thereby safeguarding the honey bee from the unknown threats of the future. Authors Eric and Joy McEwen take two decades worth of beekeeping experience, experiments, and professional production to deliver groundbreaking methods in queen-rearing, varroa mite management, and Natural Nest hive design. Inside, you’ll discover: • Revived and adapted heritage Integrated Pest Management techniques • How to naturally rear queens and select for resilient, mite-resistant genetic lines without relying on swarming or grafting • Key tenets of apicentric beekeeping • Advice for establishing a flourishing and sustainable business with beekeeping at the center • How to naturally rear bees with distinctive characteristics suitable to their locale As in large-scale agriculture, the trend toward genetic homogenization is having long-term implications for bees’ capacity to withstand diverse environmental stressors. With expert advice, enthusiasm, and easy-to-follow instructions, Raising Resilient Bees delivers important and timely information for every beekeeper to create a healthier future.

Chickens

Chickens PDF

Author: Sue Weaver

Publisher: CompanionHouse Books

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781935484608

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"Experienced and novice chicken owners alike will find Hobby Farms: Chickens filled with valuable information about the ins-and-outs of buying, raising, and caring for chickens. As with any livestock, it is always best for keepers to be as knowledgeable as possible about their animals. Every chicken keeper will gather a flock of essential information on keeping these remarkable creatures from this colorful new addition to the Hobby Farms series"--

How to Raise Chickens

How to Raise Chickens PDF

Author: Christine Heinrichs

Publisher: Voyageur Press

Published: 2019-01-08

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 0760364141

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Whether you want to raise 5 chickens or 50, have a 40-foot city lot or a 40-acre farm, the expert advice in Future Farmers of America (FFA)–licensed How to Raise Chickens makes it easy for young readers and beginners to get started raising a healthy flock. Whichever comes first for you, the chicken or the egg, this book shows what to do next with the help of longtime chicken breeder Christine Heinrichs, who explains all the helpful dos and important don'ts. Easy-to-follow advice helps readers: Choose breeds and obtain stock House and feed chickens Manage your flock and keep it healthy Select and cull for breeding programs Incubate eggs and care for chicks Raise chickens in the country, suburbs, or city How to Raise Chickens provides information on breed types, obtaining stock, housing, feeding, flock management, breeding programs, incubation and care of chicks, selection and culling, showing, health care, and the legal aspects of raising chickens. Reviewed and approved by Dr. Clint Rusk (Purdue University Associate Professor in the Youth Development and Agriculture Education Department), this book will give you the tools you need to succeed in raising these challenging but rewarding animals. Beautifully designed and authoritatively written, How to Raise Chickens is a trusted source of information to new chicken keepers of all ages, sure to inspire further investigation of the hobby.

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